Clearly deductible

  • Production gear: cameras, lenses, lighting, microphones, drones, computers. Above roughly €450 per item you depreciate over several years instead of deducting at once.
  • Software and subscriptions: editing suites, stock libraries, scheduling tools, cloud storage, analytics.
  • Outsourced work: editors, thumbnail designers, virtual assistants, accountants — including the accountant reading this list with you.
  • Workspace: a rented studio in full; a home studio only when the space is independent (own entrance and facilities) — the ordinary spare bedroom generally stays private.
  • Business travel: trips with a genuine business purpose, documented. A production trip with a shot list and published output qualifies; adding two private beach days makes the trip partly private, split accordingly.
  • Marketing: paid promotion, website costs, giveaways to your audience (promotional costs at purchase value).
  • Phone and internet: the business share.

The clothing rule, precisely

Clothing is deductible only as workwear: suitable (almost) exclusively for work, or carrying your logo of at least 70 cm² per item. The dress worn once in a video and again at dinner is private, however essential it felt to the shoot. Costumes and clearly unwearable stage pieces qualify; a designer wardrobe does the opposite of qualifying.

Mostly private, whatever the content

  • Gym, cosmetic treatments, hair, nails: personal care is private even when your appearance is your product — a line Dutch case law has drawn repeatedly.
  • Glasses and general wellness: private.
  • Everyday meals: private; business meals with a documented business partner are deductible within the mixed-costs limits.

The car

A company car works via the addition (bijtelling): a percentage of list value added to your income for private use. At creator mileage patterns, keeping the car private and charging the business €0.23 per business kilometre is frequently the better deal — calculate before you sign.

The rule above all rules

Deductions follow evidence. A folder of invoices, a mileage log and a one-line business purpose per trip turn every grey discussion your way. Free products from brands are the mirror image of this page — taxable rather than deductible — and get their own treatment in free products and barter.

The follow-up question

Most readers arrive here from creators/questions or move on to creators/where-your-company-is-taxed.